Chika Chika no Mi
by Piccylo
Summary: Set after Enies Lobby. The crew had just docked with their new ship, but something strange is happening. You can hear footsteps all around the ship, but if you look to see who it was, no one is there. Is this ship haunted by a phantom?
1. Ghosts?

Disclaimer: Don't own One Piece, don't know Oda, don't have connections in Toei Studios, Shonen Jump, or 4Kids. Warning: Language.

Most of the story that involves this OC I had no intention of posting, but I really liked the idea of the fruit I made and I wanted to share it. "Chika Chika no Mi" is the name of the fruit ("chika" is Japanese onomatopoeia for the flickering of light; I personally like the translation into English for it being "Bling Bling Fruit").  
This story also has a few spoilers if you haven't read/watched up to the latest chapter/episode, takes place after Enies Lobby, and goes on the assumption that Franky is joining the Mugiwara (that being said, I will almost definitely be editing this later).

* * *

Going Merry was dead, but they were able to let it go with proud tears. The others weren't quite so sure how Usopp was able to get over it, since it was his only connection with Kaya and the village he grew up in, but he did nevertheless. The Going Merry was a proud ship, although modest in comparison to what they now had, and it lived up to the end of its days returning the love it was given to its nakama. 

After a tearful leaving from Water 7 and his "family", Franky joined the ship as their new shipwright. And! …He brought his guitar! Not that anyone really cared except Luffy. Luffy was the one that wanted a musician all this time. And was he a good musician? Well…

He was so-so. Not bad, but, he was a guitar guy, and that's about it. Luffy liked it, but he wanted drinking songs and pirate ballads, and, let's face it, Franky's stuff can be just plain _weird_. So Luffy still whined about wanting a musician.

The next island they came to was called Rumyers. It was most known for its distillery, and it had other attributes as well, just as every island on the Grand Line does. It wasn't a poor country, but it wasn't humble either. After docking in a more obscure area, they went into the large port town and looked around. Sanji's first order of business was to get the produce, and Nami of course wanted to go shopping. Chopper wanted books, Zoro wanted sake… nothing about their behavior was different.

But someone had to be left to guard the ship. Robin volunteered, since most of the others wanted to shop badly, and Zoro (who would normally stay behind and sleep) was opted out by Sanji because he felt Zoro didn't do a good job last time (in other words, he was just trying to start another fight… and succeeded).

"Tsh. Fine," Zoro finally grumbled after Sanji's attention was pulled away by Nami, "I'd rather go to a bar than just buy something and drink here anyway."

Luffy ran up beside Zoro. "Bar's have food! I want meat and soda!"

Usopp felt a sweatdrop run down his temple. "Is it really okay for those two with such huge bounties to be going into a bar?"

"Who knows what idiots think?" Sanji puffed before looking back over to the ship. "I'll be back soon to make you a special snack, Robin-chan! ♥"

Robin waved them away as they left, already burying her nose into a book. Guarding the ship wouldn't be hard for her at all, and she was getting really interested in what she was reading lately anyway. And it was doubtful that anyone would attack that she couldn't take care of: the Marines weren't heavy on this island from what they heard, and no one particularly strong like a Shichibukai was there.

A few hours had passed, and she was more than halfway through the book. It made sense that everyone would be taking their time, but she expected one or two of them to have returned by now. Besides, the lack of constant foolishness from the others was starting to make her realize how quiet it was with them out, and she started wishing for something to happen.

She heard a creak on the gangplank, and her eyes shot up. Nothing. She blinked and looked back down at her book. _Must have just been the ship swaying,_ she thought. She continued to read.

In her peripheral vision, something caught her attention. Robin's eyes shot around again, but she still saw nothing. It was very strange, but for a second, it seemed like the air was _bending_ at a certain place astern near the gangway. She was about to continue reading when she saw it again. She rubbed her eyes and put the book down. "Perhaps I've been reading too long. My eyes need a rest."

Robin stood up and stretched a bit before pacing over to the area that she'd been eyeing, intending to walk a lap or two around the deck of the ship. She felt that she was being slightly paranoid to check out the place that she'd been hearing noise and seeing strange things from, but the pushed that out of her mind.

But as she walked by, she unmistakably heard the sounds of someone sneaking around. From all her years from being an assassin, she knew what that sound was. She shot her glance in the area she heard it. "Who's there?"

There wasn't an answer, and she saw nothing. Even more unusual, the area that she was looking was rather in the open: no objects to hide behind or shadows to conceal oneself. She shook her head. "I was sure that I heard it over there…"

She heard the noise again, and spun around. Whoever it was, they seemed to have been going towards the cabins, but she wasn't sure where exactly they were hiding. The fact that this person seemed to have been able to hide in broad daylight made her anxious. For someone to be so skillful… perhaps they weren't outside of CP9's surveillance?

When she was certain the person was going towards the cabins, she held her breath and listened even more carefully. A few seconds later, she sprouted eight pairs of arms from the doorframe that lead inside and blocked the way as quickly as she could. Success: She could feel that something bumped into her arms, and the invisible person fell back with a _thump_.

"Shit! What the Hell is _that_?" A male voice exclaimed. "…Damnit!" The invisible person got up and started sprinting away, his footsteps betraying his movement with each clear knock against the wooden floorboards.

Robin chased the sound until it stopped. She was now on the starboard side of the ship, and she wasn't sure where the man had gone now. She knew that he hadn't gone far, since she was so close when his steps stopped, and if he had jumped to higher grounds or into the ocean, she felt that she would have heard it.

She quieted herself again and listened, slowly walking forward as she surveyed the area cautiously.

"Chika Chika no Metsubushi!" The voice cried out from her right. Robin spun around to look, and her eyes were immediately greeted with a blinding light. She let out a yelp and covered her eyes with her arms as she fell back a bit, clenching her lids at the stinging sensation. The invisible man took this as an opportunity to run, and his rapid steps lead away… back towards the cabins. She struggled to open her eyes and follow in suit, but she knew that he got inside before she could get the chance to stop him.

Once inside, she opened her eyes as wide as her eyelids would allow themselves to peel back. It was dark, and her struggling eyes were having difficulty adjusting to the change. Since she had no idea where to go from here, she stopped and allowed her eyes a chance to rest. It seemed to take several minutes, but she was able to see. It was quiet. If he was in the hallway, out in the open, he must have been holding his breath, but it was much more likely that he was in a room… one of the cabins, maybe the cargo hold…

"ROBIN CHAAN! ♥" The shout from outside startled her, and she felt her heart almost leap out of her ribcage.

She placed a hand on her chest and sighed. "It's only Cook-san." She was about to turn and walk out, but she rethought the notion quickly. "I'm in here! There might be some trouble…"

"Trouble…?" Sanji was there by Robin's side faster than you can say "dartboard-eyebrow". "I'll gladly protect you from any dangers."

"There's an intruder on board."

"An intruder! Did he hurt you in any way? I'll kill the shitty bastard!"

"No, I'm fine." She smiled at his overprotective nature. "But he ran into here, and I can't tell where he is." She thought for a moment. "Are you the first to come back?"

He nodded. "I don't expect them to come back very soon, though, so we'll have to make sure that this person doesn't get away."

"Also, he seems to have the ability to turn himself invisible."

"…You've got to be kidding me."

She shook her head. "I think he's a devil fruit user."

"I see." Sanji sighed and went ahead towards the rooms. "You stay here, Robin-chan. I'll look for him."

"Be careful, Cook-san."

"I'm glad that you care about my welfare. ♥" Sanji said happily before he entered into his own cabin.

What he thought was only going to take a couple of minutes in each room turned out to be a drawn out and tedious task. He shuffled through his stuff and rooted around in areas that he thought someone might hide, even patting on top of his bed and walking all around the quarters to make sure that he didn't miss a spot.

When he came back out, Robin looked at him quizzically. "Maybe you should be listening for his movements in each room rather than trying to cover all the corners. He can't hide his noise."

"Ah, it's good that you said that, Robin-chan," he said before going into the next room. Even this strategy, however, took time, and it was almost forty minutes later when he had finished with the cabins and the kitchen, and he still hadn't even gone below deck.

This was about the time that Usopp had come back to the ship. "Hey! Where is everybody? Robin? Are you here?"

"Inside, Long Nose-kun!" Robin called.

Usopp peered around the door and came in. "What are you guys doing in here?"

"Some shitty invisible bastard got on board," Sanji said wryly, lighting another cigarette.

"_Invisible?_" Beads of sweat began to form on Usopp's brow.

Sanji drew from the cigarette and exhaled as he put out the match. "And it's taking forever to find him. Robin-chan, are you sure he's still inside?"

"Yes. I would have heard him if he tried to sneak past me. He must be below deck."

Sanji nodded. "Very well. Usopp, come on and help me look for him downstairs."

"What? Why me?"

"Because it takes too long for one person to do it, and Robin-chan shouldn't be in harms way, especially after all that she's experienced recently. Now come on!"

Usopp sighed and followed the cook down the stairs. They began to look through the rooms like before separately, calling to each other when they were certain that the room they last looked in was clear.

The last places to look were the pantry and the cargo hold. Sanji, of course, wanted to look through the food and make sure that nothing was bothered, so Usopp was left with the task of checking the cargo. Usopp grumbled at his misfortune and entered into the hold, since he knew that it'd be necessary to make sure that nothing important was stolen even if he didn't find this invisible man.

He entered into the hold and patted around for the light. It was always a little harder to find in the cargo hold it seems, so it took a little bit. When he found it, he muttered "Finally," and flipped it on. But when he turned around, he noticed that there was something wrong. "I would have sworn that there were more supplies here… Maybe he came to steal cargo? But does that mean that he already got away…?" He walked over towards the area that he was sure there was a box before.

"_Chika Chika no Blackout…_"

The lights abruptly cut out, leaving Usopp blinking in the darkness. "Agh! Damnit, Franky! I thought you said that the wiring was perfect!" He complained aloud, attempting to keep himself from panicking in this situation. There was a good chance that this guy was in the room, since he thought he heard a voice… and wasn't entirely sure, but he felt he could hear someone breathing as he approached. He thought briefly about calling Sanji to come in as well.

"_Chika Chika no Genzou…_"

"**_YAAAAAAAAGGGHH!_**" Usopp's scream rang through the decks. Sanji dropped the food he was inspecting and from the pantry to the cargo space. He found Usopp on the floor, twitching and foaming from the mouth, his eyes blank.

"Usopp!" Sanji knelt down and pulled him up by the shoulders. "What happened?"

"G-ghosts… M-mo-monster…" Usopp choked out.

"What? What are you trying to say?"

"A… monster appeared…"

"A monster? Are you sure? Robin-chan said that it's probably a devil fruit user."

"_Chika Chika no Genzou…_"

Sanji heard the voice and looked up instinctively to find the speaker, and then he dropped his cigarette from his mouth. A large red oni was towering above him and shadowing him, holding a huge iron club over its shoulder and scowling down with glowing, orange eyes.

His eyes widened and he clenched his teeth as he stepped back. "What the Hell is that!"

The oni moved to pull its club back, and it brought it crashing down at Sanji. The cook was so stunned that he had backed himself against some barrels, putting himself in a position that he couldn't dodge the attack from. He clenched his eyes and prepared for the blow to hit him.

But it never hit. He opened his eyes again, and the oni was gone. The lights had turned back on as well.

He didn't waste any time to think. Sanji immediately grabbed a hold of Usopp and ran out of the cargo hold, slamming the door loudly behind him. He leaned back against it and exhaled.

Robin had already come down the stairs when she heard Usopp's scream, and she sat before the two. "Cook-san, what happened?"

"That invisible man seems to be able to summon demons or something," Sanji sighed. "I don't know. But whatever that thing was, it's still in there. We'll just keep the door closed until the others come back."

She looked over at Usopp. "And Long Nose-kun?"

Usopp finally got over his temporary inconvenience of fear and sat up on his own accord. "I'm fine… I didn't get hurt or anything." He wiped his brow with his forearm. "But if he's able to summon demons, what makes you think that we can keep him from having one bust through the door?"

Sanji scowled. "I guess we're just going to have to hope that he doesn't. Robin-chan, are you sure that it's a devil fruit user? Are there any devil fruits that can turn someone into a ghost and interact with other ghosts?"

Usopp complied. "Is there a Bake Bake no Mi or something?"

Robin shook her head. "Not that I know of, but whatever he is, he can't go through walls, and he still makes noise even though he's invisible. And I think I heard him say an attack name before he tried to blind me earlier…"

"Ahh! He tried to hurt you, Robin-chan? That bastard! How dare he do something like that!"

Usopp looked over at Sanji incredulously. "Oi."

* * *

Nakama – You should know what this term means by now!  
Rumyers – I took it from "Myers's Rum"… which I'm running out of. –taps bottle-  
Metsubushi – Something thrown into one's eyes in order to blind them.  
Genzou – Phantom, illusion, vision.  
Bake – From "obake" and "bakemono" (both mean basically "ghost")  
I know that it looks more likely for Franky to join… but I still want it to be Paulie! He's like… _anti_-Sanji… and that amuses me.  
Or Lulu! Ah… that'd kill me for sure. 


	2. Fruit No 4

Disclaimer: It's back in chapter 1.

I ran out of that particular rum. Oh well. I still have my 151. Remember that as the manga progresses, there may be serious edits in any/all posted chapters of this story.

* * *

The three stood guard outside the door until the others eventually returned. Usopp volunteered to go up onto deck and relay what hand happened. 

Franky tilted his head and crossed his arms at the news. "I don't believe in ghosts and demons." He went below deck.

Nami professed the same thing, but went to her own cabin instead.

Chopper's whole body shook, admitting his fear, and became a naïve cheerleader soon afterwards for Usopp's declaration of bravery that he exhibited in facing the huge oni.

Zoro simply said that he'd "check it out" and went below deck.

And Luffy…

Luffy got all… sparkly-eyed.

He was so impressed by the idea of an invisible man that could summon demons and so many other things that whatever danger it could mean for him, the crew, or the cargo didn't seem to matter at this point. He gleefully sprinted down the steps crowing, "So cool! I wanna see the invisible man!"

Usopp sighed and dropped his head before grudgingly following. When he came to the base of the staircase, he stood back along with Robin and Sanji, who'd decided to stay back and guard the back (besides, Sanji wanted to guard Robin-chan as well).

There was a moment of hesitation as Zoro, Luffy, and Franky stood before the door. Franky reached out, turned the knob, and the three stormed into the cargo hold. Zoro already had a sword out and Franky sneered and held his arms out in a threatening stance.

Luffy carefully scanned the room with a serious face. A few seconds later, he dropped his defensive stance. "Hey, Usopp must've lied again," he said, blinking, "I don't see an invisible man anywhere."

Franky and Zoro turned to him. "YOU CAN'T SEE AN INVISIBLE MAN! AHO!"

"Oh, that's true."

"_Chika chika no Blackout…_"

The lights seemed to shut out on them again, and the room was pitch black.

"Wah! The lights went out!" Luffy exclaimed, "How'd that happen?"

Zoro scowled in the darkness. "The lights cut out. I thought this was new wiring."

"This isn't an electrical problem…" Franky answered, "Look; there isn't even any light coming in from under the door."

"That's really weird! I know! Maybe the ship is _haaauuuunted_!" He emphasized this by waving his voice with the word.

"Don't say stupid things like that," Zoro growled.

"_Chika chika no Genzou…_"

A soft, white circle of light expanded into view from the opposite side of the room, and in the center of it formed the figure of a translucent girl, of about preteen or early-teen age. Her image seemed faded and incomplete… her feet were not visible below her legs, and she seemed to hover above the ground. She wore rags, and her face had no color in it, but she had stark, piercing eyes framed with even more darkness. Her black hair hung messily from her scalp, and her hands reached out before her, towards the three.

They stared at her, each unsure of what to do about this vision before them.

"Who are you?" Zoro finally broke the silence.

It said nothing, but glided towards them slowly, approaching inch by inch.

He held his sword in stance, and the others went into battle mode as well. "Answer me, or I'll slice you to bits!"

"_Leave this ship…_" It said… in a man's voice.

The group seemed taken back and confused by this. Luffy tilted his head. "Why does the girl ghost have a man's voice?"

Zoro huffed and lowered his sword. "Yeah, that's really weird."

"You guys attract the strangest people," Franky said.

"You're one to talk!" the swordsman said with a frown.

The phantom seemed to get angry from this, and stopped its approach to yell at them. "What does it matter what kind of voice I have! I'm a ghost! I haunt the ship! You should be running away in fear! Aren't I frightening enough?"

"Well, yeah you _look_ pretty scary…" Franky began.

"…But your voice is pretty distracting," Zoro finished.

"Enough of this! Chika chika no Yume!"

In an instant, the darkness and the spirit vanished, but instead of a cargo hold in its place, they saw that they were in a prison, with several half-starved men wearing ratted pirate garb chained to the walls and sitting on the floor in shackles. Some of them were shaking, apparently afflicted with some sort of ailment.

"Now what's happening?" Zoro looked at his new surroundings conspicuously.

Franky put his hands to his hips. "It appears as though we're in a naval brig…"

"Brig…?" Luffy took a second to digest this. "AHH! WE GOT ARRESTED!"

Zoro finally bopped him on the head. "How could we have gotten arrested so suddenly?"

"This is probably an illusion of some kind, so we're still on the ship. Robin and the others said that this guy had devil fruit powers, after all."

"So, we should check each of these guys and see which one's the real one, right? Like with Nami's mirage thing?" Luffy walked over to the nearest pirate and tapped him, but as soon as his hand came near him, the man dissolved in the air. "_Suge!_…That's so _cool_!"

Zoro shook his head. "This is getting us nowhere." He became still for a moment, trying to ignore the image before him and focus on the presence of what was really there. He determined that there was a barrel to his right, a large box to his left, and… he could tell that there was a fourth person in the room breathing. He walked towards the presence, pulled out his sword again, and pointed it straight out.

The vision fell, and this time, when they saw the cargo hold again, they could see the perpetrator: a man in his early twenties, with wood colored hair and plain features, dressed in a fine silk tunic and flared pants. His eyes were wide, and he held his hands up in surrender.

Not long later, the man was tied up onto their mast, hanging his head in shame. Every Strawhat was crowded around him, looking down at him in contemplative annoyance (except for Luffy, who just sat in front of him, staring).

"You were in the cargo hold to steal our goods, weren't you?" Nami said flatly.

The man nodded slowly.

"What's your name?"

"Tilden. I'm a traveling merchant…"

"A merchant?" Usopp raised a brow. "Why would a merchant be trying to steal from a pirate ship?"

"Well… I've been pretty low on money lately…" he began, "Business has been bad for the past few weeks. My ship's nearly wrecked, and all of my crew quit. Ends are getting hard to meet, and I have no way to continue without getting money _somewhere_."

"But a _pirate_ ship?"

"It might seem absurd to you, but I've stolen from pirate ships before, and when you steal from thieves and brigands, the authorities usually just look the other way and let you go about with your business."

"So you think that it's justified to steal from pirates instead of civilians?" Franky said, "Do you really dislike pirates that much?"

"Oh… no, that isn't it. Most of my best customers and suppliers have been pirates. Besides, I was inspired to go into this racket from a pirate…" He paused for a moment, as if recollecting. "If it weren't that pirate, I would still be on my little island, unaware of the rest of the world around me."

"Oi! How do you do that disappearing thing anyway?" Luffy spoke up.

"I ate the Chika Chika no Mi. It allows me to create and bend light to my will… but it took a lot of training to hone my skills with it to this extent, and I only ate it three years ago."

"_Sugeeee!_ So you _are_ a devil fruit user! That's a really neat ability!" Luffy grabbed and stretched out his cheeks in response. "I ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi, so I'm a rubber human!"

Tilden sweat-dropped. "I… I see…"

Luffy let his cheeks slap back to his face, and he made a wide grin as he chuckled a bit. "You're a really interesting guy! You should come aboard and stick with us for a while!"

"WHAT!" The whole crew reacted. Everyone looked at Luffy like they were having a heart attack, the tied-up Tilden included.

"Well, he said that he didn't have a crew, and that his ship's broken."

"That's probably just a sob story so we'd let him go! Don't forget that this guy just tried to steal from us!" Nami screamed, "How can you possibly sit there and ask him to join our crew? He's a pirate thief; he can't be trusted!"

Then she realized that everyone was staring at her, and she sneered. "…What?"

Tilden blinked and smiled nervously. "Is the captain really going to allow that?"

They pointed to Luffy. "_He's_ the captain."

"Y-you're kidding…"

"Can you do anything else besides do turn invisible and do stuff with light?" Luffy continued, "Hey! Are you a musician, too? That'd be even cooler!"

"I'm afraid I'm not a musician… and I really shouldn't take you up on your offer. Your crew obviously doesn't trust me, and I really don't have any wish to become a pirate myself."

Sanji frowned. "Can we just get rid of this bastard, already?

"Yeah," Usopp nodded, "It's not like he wants to join."

"…Most of us didn't want to join when Luffy dragged us into this," Zoro pointed out.

"Look, I apologize deeply for trying to steal from you." He lowered his head again. "You caught me, and that's the end of it. If you let me go, I'll leave you alone. It'd be pointless for me to try to steal from you anymore; you would simply catch me again."

Luffy didn't seem to care about that. "Who was the pirate that you mentioned?"

"Huh?"

"You said that you became a merchant because of a pirate. Who was it?"

He looked a bit taken back by the question, but Tilden eventually shook his head. "It's not like you think. This person was stranded onto our island for several years. My people are rather Xenophobic, and outsiders came rarely besides, so there were no means of leaving. You pretty much have to built a vessel and wing it without a log if you're going to leave…"

"Is that what this person did?"

"Yeah. I did it, too. I had no choice, though; I was already being ostracized for being sympathetic to outsiders, since we believed that outsiders were possessed by demons, and after I ate the fruit… there was no turning back."

"Your village exiled you because you were sympathetic?" Nami's coldness from this guy coming near her money was starting to melt.

Luffy grinned again and turned to his crewmates. "See! He's a good guy!"

Robin hummed a bit. "What was the name of the island you're from?"

"Vermillio. Not many people have even heard of it."

"It's not one of the nations in the World Government," she stated, "So, it's technically a barbarian state. I suppose that your people kept separate from the World Government by choice."

"Whatever their reasons," Tilden growled, "I don't agree with. I don't care about the World Government or the Marines or any of that nonsense. I just want to see the rest of the world, since I know it's there."

There was a bit of a silence. Most of the more rational people weren't willing to step into trusting him, but Franky did take the initiative in giving a reaction. He untied Tilden's ropes.

"Well, go on." Franky peered from over his sunglasses. "I don't think that anyone's going to stop you if you're going to run. Just don't get yourself caught again."

Tilden smiled and nodded, walking towards the gangplank, but Luffy grabbed him by the collar.

Luffy glared at him childishly. "Hey! I said you're going to join us!"

The man grabbed at his collar and coughed, trying to pull it away from his throat enough to get a breath. "I _declined_!"

The crew sighed as they saw this all-too-familiar scene. "Luffy," Usopp tried to reason, "It's not like we need him. I mean, it would be useful for a guy like that to be on the ship, but he doesn't want to join! Just let him go!"

"No." Luffy said plainly.

"But it's okay for him to stay for a while, right?" Chopper looked up at the others, wide eyed. "He's having all these problems. Can't we help?"

Zoro cringed. "We don't even know if he's telling the truth!"

"Then it's decided!" Luffy threw up his arms. "This guy's our new nakama!"

Some of the others shook their heads. Tilden simply gave up and stopped struggling.

* * *

Aho – Idiot, moron, dumbass… There's more to Japanese than "baka", y'know.  
Yume – Dream.  
Suge – "Wow" more or less. 

If you've read one of my other fics, you might remember something about Vermillio (though I didn't say its name then), and even which pirate Tilden's talking about. I probably wont mention that pirate much more in this story, so you know.


End file.
